It was akin to those grainy videos of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

There’s Bill Russell running the floor en route to the 1956 NCAA National Championship in men’s basketball or Wilt Chamberlain flipping up one of his dipper shots in the 1963 NBA All-Star game or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) making fools of USC in his college debut while netting 56 points.

The clips from newsreels were tantalizing and left the watchers wanting more from the Rare Basketball Films program at Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts that on March 17. Nevertheless, closely clipped highlights of all three men were enough.

Put a young Russell, Chamberlain or Jabbar on an NCAA or NBA floor today and they would still be stars.

They covered ground like cheetahs bounding across the savannah, running from mid-court to the basket in three or four strides. Their coordination and fluidity for men of their size was alien to the game. Their athleticism and size made them appear like they had superhero powers.

No wonder Red Auerbach, Frank McGuire and John Wooden used them as centers. It was the easiest place for them to dominate the game.

Who’s stopping Russell, Chamberlain and Jabbar around the rim? As history shows, nobody.

Without a 3-point arc on the court, basketball was an inside-out pursuit. Coaches wanted easy shots, so they designed plays like the backcut and pick-and-roll to get them. If one was lucky enough to get a player the caliber of these three, the goal was to get him the ball and get out of his way so he could do his thing.

Russell played with Hall of Fame guards who knew how and where to get it to him easily. He was also the best teammate basketball’s ever seen, willing to draw attention and pass to the open man while not needing to shoot all the time to leave his mark. It meant everyone felt a part of the action and undoubtedly helped create an atmosphere to win 11 championships in 13 years.

Chamberlain’s physical gifts were so awesome and his ego so great that he felt it was incumbent on himself to take over games and be the focal point of his teams at all times. He didn’t win as much, but the numbers Chamberlain put up in his career make it look like he was playing a video game.

Jabbar was a blend of the two. He had the same physical traits, but was smart and cagey like Russell and aloof and difficult like Chamberlain. More than anyone, he made the game of basketball look as easy as rocking in a chair.

After the clips portion of the program at Ohio State, former All-American Buckeye and New York Knick center and power forward Bill Hosket, who played against all three in his career, sat down with host David Filipi for a wildly entertaining question-and-answer session.

He told the tale about playing against Russell late in the Hall of Famer’s last regular season game. He also shared stories about guarding Chamberlain after Willis Reed famously injured his hip in the fifth game of the 1970 NBA Finals — “Just lean on him,” was Reed’s advice to the rookie Hosket who was giving up about six inches and 100 pounds to Chamberlain at that time.

Then someone in the audience asked why there are no more great centers in basketball? Hosket didn’t have a good reason, but I do.

The game is still littered with talented big men, only they’re not called centers anymore.

Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis and LaMarcus Aldridge are all 6-foot-10 or taller and all score more than 21 points per game in the NBA this season. None of them do it like Russell, Chamberlain or Jabbar.

Durant and Nowitzki are strictly perimeter players with high-post skills. Love is a 3-point artist, while Griffin runs the floor and finishes like an acrobat from Cirque du Soleil. Davis and Aldridge have stellar mid-range games to go with abilities to make plays around the rim.

Two generations ago these guys — along with 6-9 LeBron James — would have been tied to the block and told to use their height and athleticism like Russell, Chamberlain and Jabbar.

But then something happened. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, a pair of 6-9 guys, showed there’s a different way for big guys to play. Bird dared to be a prolific outside shooter long before Carmelo Anthony happened on the scene, while Johnson was a never-before-seen point guard.

Michael Jordan may be the greatest basketball player of all time — a debate for another column — but he didn’t transform the game. Long before Jordan there were guys who got theirs like him — Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Rick Berry, Julius Erving and David Thompson to name five. Since Jordan not much has changed with the Kobe Bryants and Dwayne Wades — great athletes who can volume score with the best of them.

Bird and Johnson changed basketball for the better. They broke stereotypes. Bird’s shooting and passing and Johnson’s ball control and passing weren’t supposed to come from guys so big.

They opened up the game. They spread the floor. They got teammates involved like never before. Through Bird and Johnson come James and Durant.

But before Bird and Johnson, there was Russell, Chamberlain and Jabbar. And better than the Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster clips, the grainy footage shows three athletes capable of playing a modern basketball game if they’d just been asked to.

The great centers still exist. They’re just in a different package.

Rob McCurdy is a sports writer at the News Journal and can be reached at rmccurdy@gannett.com or 419-521-7241. On Twitter follow @McMotorsport.